We had a nice day relaxing at the beach in Newport Beach.
It was a foggy morning here in Newport Beach, just like yesterday. It seems that foggy mornings are a thing in a most of California I guess? 🙂
The girls had a good day of school, they got all their work done, and even were able to take quite a few breaks in between. Some days though, like yesterday and today, they end up taking breaks in different times because of the live lessons or what not, and they end up interrupting each other, so I need to manage that and make sure they go outside or something. They were able to take some breaks together though, and in one of them, they went outside and were playing together. After a few minutes that they were out, I heard them both calling out mommy and daddy, and it was non stop, like if something had happened. I finished what I was doing quick, and in a few seconds I was outside, looking for where they were calling from, and all I had to do was look across the street. They were both behind the fence, in the bike path, and calling from there. I knew immediately what had happened. There’s a gate with a security code to come back from the bike path, they went through, but it got locked behind them and they could not come back in. Eheheheh… it’s a bit funny, but they were very scared and crying. I tried to keep it light right away so they would not be freaking out. They were scared. We hugged, they cried, I calmed them down, we laughed a bit, and they were back to doing school work. I’m glad the fence is just across the street from where we are, so it was very easy for them to just walk over and call us out. Both girls were done with their work around lunch time.
Carol woke up earlier than usual as I had a call at 7am, and the girls needed some help while I was on the call. She helped them girls through the morning, while taking care of things around the trailer.
I had a busy morning. And it was frustrating at times. I had posts to write, websites to update and launch, news to share, etc and with both girls asking for help all the time, I kept getting interrupted and it was hard to get things rolling. There was not a lot we could do today, so I just kept on going, stayed calm, and did a little bit of everything at the same time. I had a work call right away at 7, we wrapped up the website text for my consulting gig, and announced that I joined HSA Consulting Services as a partner. The website is pretty much done, minor details need to be finished yet, but it was ready to go. We made announcements on LinkedIn basically, and I got a lot of reach outs all day from there, lots of messages and traffic to the website. I continued working on updating LinkedIn, adding my advisor roles with RTO and Qledgr as well. I finished the work needed for the consulting site, and finished writing posts to stay caught up. I also did some more work I had for the consulting business, and was all done with what I needed to do by lunch.
After we had lunch, we started packing what we wanted to take to the beach and got going. We arrived by the pier in Newport Beach around 2pm and decided we’d stay around that area. There are restrooms nearby and there was plenty of space for us, lots of surfers in the water, and we found parking right there as we drove in.
Newport Beach is definitely one of our favorite places. It’s such a pretty area, the beach is awesome, lots of great restaurants, etc. I paid just a little over $10 for a 4 hour parking sticker, which is not bad considering prices in other places. We walked towards the beach and setup our spot. We have this beach blanket that we use now and is great, so we got that one down and Carol laid down on it right away. The girls were playing in the sand right away, making holes and castles. Carol actually decided to take a nap, and used her face mask as an sleeping mask hahahahahah. Â
So, I decided to go for a walk. First I went towards the pier to use the restroom. I remember this place well from when my sister, Carol and I came almost 15 years ago. I had a business trip in San Diego, and my sister was visiting with her friend (Carol, now my wife), so we flew to LA and rented a car, and drove down the coast to San Diego. We stopped here in this area of Newport Beach, and I remember walking around the beach front and being amazed by all the cool houses there, and how awesome it’d be to have a place like that, right in front of such a nice beach. Anyway, so next to the pier there’s a bar restaurant called Sharkeez, which I remember us stopping there to get some beers. They served them in plastic cups, and we had a few, some small and some large ones. They also had this all you can eat chips and salsa bar back then. I have a few pictures of us at this place with our big plastic cup beers, and two of those pictures have been hanging in my bar downstairs at home. So, I walked by the place and took a picture to send to my sister. I used the restroom, then walked along the sidewalk, away from the pier, so I could get a little walk in, and check out all the cool houses again. The weather was perfect for the walk, and the houses were all I remembered. Pretty cool places right in front of the water. It’s a much different setting now, as there were not that many people just hanging outside by the front porches or patios.Â
I walked for about a mile each direction, saw lots of cool houses, a group playing volleyball, another doing yoga, lots of families with kids, people biking and rollerblading, etc. There were a lot of surfers in the water, and they were mainly concentrated near the pier. The other thing I noticed is that a lot less people wearing masks here, and pretty much all the restaurants were either serving outside, or were actually serving inside, like nothing was going on. It’s like this is a different California, and none of the rules outside of here apply. There was a bar that was pretty full inside, and no-one inside was wearing masks, wow! I just could not believe it.Â
Anyway, as I walked back, the girls said they wanted some juice and Carol was sleeping, so I went to Sharkeez, got myself a beer and two lemonades. The beer now was served in those paper cups, and it was a Coke cup. hahahaha… The chips bar and lots of tables and chairs were pushed to the side, but there were a few tables and chairs setup, and half at least had people in them. Great memories of that trip. I took some pictures of the pier as I was right there too, nice spot.
I went back with the drinks and Carol was awake then. The girls were still playing, and just had some sips and continued playing. Carol and I were having a beer and chatting, watching people, etc. As the sun was setting, it got a bit colder. The girls huddled up in towels with Maggie in the middle.Â
They were having a lot of fun squeezing Maggie between them. We watched the sunset for a while, and it is just amazing. Again, sunsets in California are just amazing. We also watched some birds “steal” food from a bag that was on the floor next to an empty chair, and once that bird had the food out, all the other birds, like 20 or more of them, were chasing that first one, making noise and flying all over trying to get the food. Hahahahaha.. quite a funny scene to watch. And, as the sun set, we took lots of pictures.Â
When the sun was basically all down, and we could see an orange skyline, the sky also cleared up in the horizon and we could see some land formation, like an island was way out there, and we could also see some big ships. That was pretty cool.Â
As we packed up and got ready to go, Carol and the girls went to use the restroom and I looked up a sushi place to get some sushi to go. We are pretty well located, so we can find pretty much anything we want within a 3 mile radius. I found a place called Sushi District, and we went there to get it. When we got there, Carol went by the door to order while we waited in the truck. She put the order in, and it’d be about 20 minute wait, so we decided to drive to the Amazon Lock box at the nearby Whole Foods (which was also 3 miles from where we were) and get a box she had ordered that was there. We made some suspense with the girls as to what was in the box, as it was a surprise for them. We got them trying to guess what was in there, and Bia actually got it as one of the guesses. We got them new screens for the truck, so they can watch movies while we drive, they can independently control what they watch, the movie will go back to where it last stopped (current one does not do that), and it has games, you can plug a phone to it, etc… Super awesome upgrade, especially since the current one is not working too well. They were so excited! And as they opened the box they kept getting more and more excited as they realized it came with wireless headphones, they each could control their own screen with their own remote and that it had games. wow… they are sooo happy. We got our Sushi and drove back.
The Sushi was amazing, one of the best I’ve had in a long time. Carol got me their two spiciest rolls, and let me tell you, they were spicy! I was feeling my mouth burn and my mouth was watering non stop, it was dripping. Wow… that was awesome! Super tasty as well. Everyone loved their Sushi. After that, we cleaned up and opened up the new screens to put them in the truck. We had to made some adaptation to secure the screen to the headrest, but it worked and is setup. Now we need batteries for the remotes and headphones and we should be all set. The girls are beyond excited. I bet they can’t wait for us to move on Sunday. Hahahaha.
After dinner and setting up the screens, we all showered, cleaned up the trailer, put away the things from today, and watched TV. We binge watched Cobra Kai until almost midnight. Then it was time to go to sleep.
We had a great day today, enjoying beach time, great sushi and a nice surprise for the girls.